April 20: Therapist Billing for Giving Support to Members
Hello Everyone!
In this thread, we announced the therapist directory and community! All along our goal has been to set up a system where therapists can give support using our platform. This week, we will be launching the billing component of this update. Here is how it will work:
- A member who would like to sign up to pay for online therapy will be able brought to a payment screen upon selecting a therapist.
- We ask them to enter their payment information. With a special notice, that they will not be charged till 5 messages have been exchanged between them and their chosen therapist. This will need to include at least 1 reply from the therapist. The goal here to ensure that your therapist is a good fit for you. We want to give you room to find someone who is a good match for you before billing kicks in.
- Once you have selected your therapist, they are your therapist for the month. You will not be able to change therapists once you have hit that 5 message count.
- The monthly rate will be $150 per month. It is a recurring payment but you can cancel at any time.
As a reminder, only members who are 18+ will be able to connect to a therapist for support.
This will be live in the next 24 - 48 hours!
Question @LaraG : Are Guests able to connect with a Therapist? I find this to be a bit tricky!
@KrinkTheMellowUnicorn if paying for a therapist can unlock the personalized path for members, that is awesome! I think people will be really happy about this. :)
@cristiana33 - I believe we are requiring member signup for therapy, but I'd have to verify that.
And yes, I think the personalized paths should make a good complement to online therapy and I expect there to be some evolution as therapists give more feedback on the use of the path as a self-help and complementary tool.
@cristiana33
So, yes non-members can sign up for message therapy. We will still be gathering some info from them, in the event of an emergency, but they do not need to create a member account.
@Laura This website is advertised as a free one and since only 18+ can afford to pay monthly instalments , how will below that be able to receive the necessary help? Does this apply to everyone or is there any exceptions?
@brilhantismo
Thanks for your question. Those who are under the age of 18 will need to talk to a parent or guardian and ask them for help in connecting to a therapist. Users under 18 will still have access to listeners for free.
@Laura @LaraG
How will the therapist be sure the underage member has permission from their parent/guardian?
@cristiana33
At this time, everyone must be over 18 to do message therapy.
If members have already been talking with me as a therapist in training, when does the "ten messages limit" before being asked for a payment happen? Can they message me ten additional messages, after already having engaged in talking with me previously free of charge? Or does this new system happen straight away, factoring in the total amount of messages that they have already sent me prior to the new billing update? I am a little unclear on that.
@Maddietheanalyst - the billing system won't be clever enough to retroactively count messages, i'm pretty sure. i would treat any chatting done up to now as like the "getting to know you and decide if it's a good fit" stage of finding a therapist
@KrinkTheMellowUnicorn Ah, thank you for clarifying. To be absolutely clear, are you saying that it will be likely that the new system will take into account prior messages sent by members before the new update happened?
@Maddietheanalyst - no, sorry. I'm saying the opposite. it is more likely to be a blank slate they counts messages "from now" (launch of new features) than calculates with chats already have some of to free messages already posted.
@KrinkTheMellowUnicorn Ah, I see. Thanks for re-explaining.
@Maddietheanalyst I was under the impression that only licensed therapists will be able to bill for their services, not therapists in training. Can someone correct me if I'm wrong? @larag
@LauraKay Yes, that is correct. I wanted to be sure of the billing system rules, so I can tell my long term members that information.
@LauraKay--you are correct. A therapist in training can only use the directory service. My understanding is that to connect with members/guests, therapists in training will use their listener account. (@LaraG, is this correct?) cc: @maddietheanalyst
@Amelia
Therapists in training can only access the therapist community, and will not be listed in the directory. If they are also a listener, they can use their listener account to do traditional listening, as they always have.
@LaraGregorio--Thank you!
Gonna share my concerns about the service, now that more and more details are coming out about it. While my comments will likely seem critical to some people, please know that I present my thoughts, opinions and observations with the goal of imprivement. As such, I have suggested some tweaks and changes that would improve this service. I share my thoughts because I hold the best interests of the 7 Cups community at heart, and I want to ensure that the quality of one's experience on 7 Cups is as good as possible.
Concern One: Exclusive to Only Adults
As a teen star, I feel as though it is, in a sense, my responsibility to advocate for the teen community. Therefore, I don't think I have to explain why a service that excludes a huge portion of the site is concerning to me. I understand that there are currently complications (I believe legal?) that prevent teens from using the therapist chats on the 7 Cups platform. At the very least, I'd really like to see a lot more transparency on what is going on, and what has to be done for teens to be able to access this feature of the site. We should be able to see what is being done to try to get the teen community included in this new feature on the site. Otherwise, it can come across as though you are putting a ton of effort into the adult community and not much into the teen community, which I don't think is actually the case.
Concern Two: Lack of Clarity on Payments and When Charging Occurs
My main concern here is that I don't think it's actually said anywhere whether or not the monthly rate will give you access to message any therapist. What if it takes more than 10 messages to figure out if you click with a therapist, and you come to find that you don't, or the therapist acts out in an innappropriate manner? Can they then seek a refund or request they reach out to a new therapist without charge? Does each person have to send 10 messages, or is it 5 each? There are just a lot of questions about this that I think need to be answered.
Concern Three: Presentation to Potential 7 Cups Therapists
I took a look at the page to sign up as a therapist, and some of the claims made on that page seem blatantly false, unproven, or misleading. I've decided to highlight some of them here for you.
"In less than 5 minutes, youll be a part of the #1 place clients turn when seeking help."
I'd like to point out that this can in no way be proven. You don't have any clients yet. How can you be the #1 place clients turn to when you don't meet the main qualifier to even be ranked as a place clients turn to? Unless you can show us a statistic that backs up and justifies this claim, I recommend you remove it, or at the very least, edit it. If you want your service to be taken seriously, and reach it's full potential, you have to be open and honest.
"We will match you with the very best clients for you."
But... you aren't matching people with their clients? Apart from providing specific fields to search with, it's completely in the hands of the members to choose their therapist on their own. Members don't even have to use those filters; therefore, the site has no control over the compatability of the member and therapist.
"7 Cups is the largest mental health delivery system in the world... millions of people turn to 7 cups looking for therapy and counseling. We now want to help them find you."
How are we the largest mental health delivery system in the world? Your justification of this is that several sites have featured us and link to us, but that doesn't say anything about how much we deliver, or the quality of those services either. Furthermore, I don't understand where this millions of people statistic comes from. Millions of people over a span of what time? Because in a week, we reach 100 000 conversations? That's very far from a million, especially considering that many listeners and members reach 30 messages a number of times per session. 100 000 conversations doesn't mean 100 000 people. I can say that millions of people think I'm an awesome person, but unless I can justify that, it's just an extreme exaggeration.
Concern Four: Safety
After reading the therapist signup page, there was one thing I found to be especially concerning. "In less than 5 minutes, youll be a part of the #1 place clients turn when seeking help." You are telling me that in less than 5 minutes, you can verify that each applicant signing up is who they say they are? That they can be trusted to provide therapy and hear such private information from clients? We already have complaints about the quality of normal listener training and signup. What about the quality of the application process for therapists? This role is so potentially harmful, and I really think that only capable, qualified therapists should be able to participate in this feature. Especially considering the different lisencing requirements that would exist internationally, there should be a more thorough initiation process for therapists.
Concern Five: Therapist Self-Care
Earlier in this thread, @Laura said "You will not have scheduled sessions, but the freedom to message your therapist whenever you need. The therapist is required to reply to you at least once per day. The monthly cost will be for these daily interactions." This is a concern of mine because this seems to put heavy responsibility on the therapist to always be available. What if the therapist wishes to take a vacation, or has a family emergency, or just needs to practice some self-care? If I was a therapist, I would be so turned off by this idea, of daily contact with a client. First of all, this will result in over-dependence on the therapist, meaning they have a heavier weight to carry. Secondly, the therapist doesn't have time to regroup after difficult sessions, and they constantly have to be checking in on their clients. If this site thinks self-care is so important, why aren't therapists allowed to have boundaries set in place? If therapists want to set up sessions, or put other boundaries in place, to talk with their clients, that should be allowed. It's better for both parties, really, as not only do the therapists have the freedom to practice self-care as they wish, but clients don't risk becoming too dependent on their therapist. I'm sure there are some therapists who aren't too bothered by the idea of daily sessions with the same clients, but I also know that this will be a huge issue for others.
Suggestions
In order to ensure that my post is not seen as unconstructive (although, how is pointing out issues previously unknown seen as unconstructive?), I'm providing some productive suggestions that would improve the service. I really hope these can be taken into consideration.
✔ Create a post outlining the status of the therapist services for teens, in order to improve transparency.
✔ Reconsider the amount of messages allowed before payments must occur. Perhaps, have the therapist ask after an introductory period if the member would like to establish the therapist-client relationship. If the member says yes, the therapist could click a button that provides the payment pop-up. The button could go where listeners can find there block and help buttons, and it would give the therapist and member enough time to figure out how compatible they are.
✔ Change the language and content on your therapist sign-up page. As of right now, there are a lot of false claims and misleading statements. This could easily be corrected, and would make the site more trustworthy.
✔ Improve the initiation/sign-up process for therapists. Just as listener quality should be a priority, so should therapist quality. In a 5 minute sign-up process, it's highly unlikely that you can ensure that therapists are who they say they are, and that they can meet quality standards.
✔ Allow therapists to set boundaries that meet their needs, and that prevent over-dependency from clients.
Goals
I want to share my goals for this feature, so that the intentions of this post are clear. I want this feature to be able to thrive and flourish and so on and so forth. I believe this idea has a lot of potential, and my goals are things I can see occuring at some point.
★ I would love to see this feature one day make it to the teen side! And, in the meantime, as I've said beforehand, I would really ppreciate more transparency as to where we are with this. I think the transparency itself is an extremely achievable goal. However, it is hard to know how realistic the other goal is without that transparency.
★ I hope that one day the service will be presented with more clarity and honesty! This is simply a matter of changing some of the ways you talk about the service, and it shouldn't be too difficult to accomplish.
★ I'd really like to see more measures taken to ensure that the therapists for the service are safe, and that they are providing quality services.
★ I'd like to see similar communities for social workers and other mental health care providers. Some people don't need services from therapists, but would benefit from speaking to a social worker. While the services provided would differ from those of a therapist, the community could be structured very similarly. Some of the claims about 7 Cups being the #1 mental health care services would be more likely to become true if you could provide more diverse services.
If you read through all of this, I really appreciate it. These are my ideas that I think can improve the therapist community and service. Once again, I present these because I am passionate about this site and the community that has grown within it.
Take care, lovely reader! ❤
@RebeccaEmily - Excellent questions! I can't pretend to know all the answers, but I believe @LaraG is working on some clarifying information in general about this which should help answer some, and hopefully she (or someone else who knows) can chime in on some of the others. Thanks for helping to make this a stronger resource!
@RebeccaEmily
I commend you greatly for having the courage to post this. I think that it's much needed and can really be used to spark conversation on how to improve the Therapist and Listener Communities. I do have one concern though, and I really do not want anybody to take this the wrong way. Ever since the Therapist Community was even an idea, a thought ran through my mind that maybe listeners weren't the only primary goal of 7Cups anymore. I may be totally wrong about this and I hope I'm totally wrong about this, but I would be lying to say that this hasn't been a concern of mine.
@akaAlex
I see it as comparing the Emergency Room to a specialist, such as the Cardiovascular department. Listeners are the first line of support when it comes to mental and emotional well-being.
What separates 7 Cups from other etherapy services is the large community and devotion towards access for mental health. That's why listeners are so important. Listeners volunteering to spend their time to support others and to spread love and goodwill are what makes 7 Cups unique. There is no way that we will be considered an afterthought.
It's part of the 7 Cups mission and it's a business savvy decision to care about the community because we the community make 7 Cups unique in the mental health sphere.
There's etherapy sites that are cheaper (TalkSpace is $100 a month for example), sites that have detailed information on billing and compensation (eTherapi has on their website exactly how much they charge therapists). But when it comes to traffic, 7 Cups has the highest traffic compared to other online mental health websites.
@RebeccaEmily
Thanks for your post! We will reply with some more information shortly!
@RebeccaEmily--I think you bring up a ton of great points....let me see if I can help with at least some of them.
Concern One: Aw, hun, I totally understand the frustration here. However, because 7 Cups is based in the United States, we have to follow the laws here. As a psychologist in the US, I am not able to work with anyone who is under 18 without parental consent. And, unfortunately, verbal or virtual consent is not enough. (Even getting on a webcam and giving permission would be questionable as how do we prove the person giving consent is your parent/guardian?) I am required to have a signature on a piece of paper. The way the therapist platform is set up, the member/guest/client is able to remain anonymous to the therapist (though they are not anonymous to the site for legal reasons) unless they are in crisis (in which case the therapists request 7 Cups involvement related to mandated reporting laws).
Concern Two: The way the messaging system is set up is more like email than like PM chatting. The development team has worked to make that clear to those who are accessing the therapist platform. In that sense, 5 messages per person (@LaraG needs to confirm this is accurate but this is the last I heard) can actually be quite a bit. When you have therapy in-person, you pay for each appointment--including an initial appointment. So, even the option to have these 5 messages is better than in-person therapy in terms of deciding that you and your therapist are not a good fit. Id like to give a clear example, though, of how long these messages are. I am not accepting clients on the therapist platform--rather, I am trying to help answer questions. Regardless, people have sent me their life story in hopes that I am accepting clients--these have ranged from 4-8 paragraphs on average. They take me 15mins or so to fully and carefully read. Then, to reply to each point would take a good 30mins, if not more. Therefore, one message from the member/guest and one from the therapist could add up to a full appointment in real life. Regarding the refund, it looks like @Laura updated her original post to clarify that you can change therapists after the month.
Concern Three: This is advertising related so I am not comfortable addressing this concern. @GlenM, could you address this one? RebeccaEmily, I can say that the site does have statistics that show the number of individual people who seek support on the site so I do not believe this information is without fact.
Concern Four: They are checking credentials. I had to provide my licensure information and this was verified by @LaraG. Yes, it is harder for it to be checked internationally. However, I know that LaraG has researched and learned about the requirements for independent clinical practice internationally--and that is what a licensed therapist boils down to--they are legally and ethically allowed to provide independent clinical services.
Concern Five: Because the messages are exchanged through the therapist side of the 7 Cups platform, the therapist can turn off notifications and just check their messages once a day (or however often they'd prefer) and reply at that time. Additionally, even though the member/guest/client can message the therapist at any time, the therapist is expected to reply once daily, Monday thru Friday (not on the weekend).
Questions for you my dear :):
1. How can we legally prove parental consent over the internet? I think that 7 Cups would love to be able to extend this service to teens but have not found a legal and ethical manner in which to do this yet. If you have ideas, I think they'd love to hear them and start checking them out!
2. How can it be made more clear that it is similar to email rather than PM? I don't think anyone is trying to be deceptive and I hope by my explanation up top, the level of interaction that can occur in those 5 messages per person is more clear. How do you think this could be conveyed better to those seeking the message therapy?
3. What suggestions do you have for advertising? What would make you feel more comfortable? Again, no one is trying to be deceptive (as far as I know 
) and none of the statistics are lies--they simply are not statistics we have discussed before. Knowing that, what type of advertising would you recommend. This platform could help sustain the site--so let's keep it up!
4. Do you think a wait time would help? For example, once your credentials are confirmed, youll be part of … in less than 5 minutes. Would that be better/feel safer?
5. Does what I explained help or….? I hope what I explained helped...if not, what would you like to see the boundaries/guidelines read as?
Tags: @GlenM @LaraG @Twish @Laura @Iara @Heather @KrinkTheMellowUnicorn @Anomalia @cristiana33
@Amelia
Thank you for this thorough reply! You basically said all that I would have said!
@Amelia
Thank you for this follow-up! It provides a lot of helpful information in response to Rebecca's questions!
@RebeccaEmily
Hi there! I'm only going to address Concern Number One here. I think @Amelia has done wonderfully to address your concerns and I just want to add on to her explanation of Number One. When the therapist side was launched I had a discussion in the teen rooms in which I explained that for legal reasons we are not able to provide this service for teens. I understand it is very frustrating to feel like there is this huge effort going on and the teen community cant benefit from these effort. I believe a lot of the effort right now is focus on getting the Therapist side buzzing, though this does not mean we have not had discussions about how this would affect the teen side. I am actually doing some research about it and connecting with some of my professors in law school during the summer (when the semester is over) to explore this more indept. I would be happy to make a forum post which more clearly focuses on the teens and what awaits in the online therapy world for teens in 7 cups.If you (or anyone) has soem more specific thoughts you'd like me to clarify or go over in that post, send me a PM and we can discuss them further!
@RebeccaEmily
You are a very wise person!
I too share the concern regarding the quality of therapists.
I have been rudely insulted by a handful of 5 star listeners with 30+ glowing reviews.
What if the therapist got their degree in psychology/therapy from a degree mill or on the back of box of cheerio's or a even heaven forbid got their therapy license from $cientololgy!? or other pseudo science self help cult and yeah if a volunteer totally free listener can get burnt out then so can a professional. You raised a lot of good points and I am proud to share space on this website with you. I also know that this is not the only site that offers couseling via a messaging service. I heard of therapists that charge for skype chats and if I had the money and wanted therapy. I would much rather have a webcam type online therapy session.
I'm not sure how this new addition to the site will work but, I still have my doubts.
Remember this basic rule of mechanics. The more you have the more that can wrong. O.O
@IntellectualVegabond
You are right that not all therapists are fabulous. But, the ones of 7 Cups will have licenses (in good standing), training, and insurance. Further, they will be reviewed, just as listeners are, so when "shopping" for a therapist on 7 Cups, you'll actually have MORE information than you would if you were seeking a therapist in the traditional way. Usually, when someone makes an appointment with a therapist, they are gambling on whether it will be a good experience or not...and, they pay for the service, even if it turns out that they don't like the therapist.
@RebeccaEmily Just want to cover the Concern 3 and a small bit about Concern 4!
Regarding the Presentation of 7 Cups to Therapists
These are more marketing techniques than anything else. One thing 7 Cups has over other e-therapy sites is that it has the biggest traffic compared to its competitors.
You can go to https://Alexa.com and search different sites and their ranking. When comparing us the US ranking, 7 Cups is slightly ahead of the next website, https://www.betterhelp.com/. Thse global rank however, is significantly different, showing that as a global mental health platform 7 Cups is the largest.
7 Cups is currently ranked as 32,484 globally.
BetterHelp is ranked at 70,726
BlahTherapy at 197,927
BreakThrough at 276,891
TalkSpace at 97,652
Etherapi at 1,373,882
These are the largest comepetitors to 7 Cups in the telemedicine field and as you can see 7 Cups currently outpaces all of them when it comes to traffic and community. I dont think that it's unreasonable to say that this is the #1 place people turn to when seeking help. Having a larger community also means having more people who are financially able to seek e-therapy.
This is by no means a complete list, and if you find any sites not listed that are comparable to 7 Cups please do post it (Id like to know :D)
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I don't have anything to say regarding the "very best clients" aspect. I think it can be removed if necessary.
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Similar to the point above regarding traffic and how 7 Cups has outpaced every other online e-therapy platform out there.
I believe I read somewhere that we got over 6 million unique visitors in the 3 years that 7 Cups has been around. @Laura or @GlenM may be able to provide more metrics on this.
Safety
A lot of therapists (at least the ones I know personally in the US) are hesitant about switching to online therapy because it means navigating HIPAA and being sure that they are following rules set in place so that they will not lose their license. I see the safety issue as broken down into 3 safety measures.
1) Licensing - I wrote in a previous post on this thread about the amount of time and money that therapists need to invest to get a degree and obtain a license (from a US perspective). This means that someone who is licensed has typically had hundreds of hours of practicum experience before obtaining their degree and subsequent license. This is important to note because if they behave improperly to an online client, they can still lose their license.
2) Registration validation with LaraG - I spoke to Lara about the therapy list and she checks through them to make sure that the person who is signing up as a therapist is legally able to provide therapy, has a license number (if necessary), and has all the proper requirements to practice therapy in real life. They must also have insurance, leading me to my third point.
3) Therapist insurance. To me this is also huge because it means that you as the client is protected because the therapist has insurance. If (heavens forbid) something happens and the therapist behaves improperly, you have the right and ability to take legal action. Furthermore, because they have insurance, the insurance company is there to also take responsibilityfor whatever happens.
Due to the license validation process and the insurance policy, I feel safe about 7 Cups's e-therapy service.
Disclaimer: I do not use the 7 Cups e-therapy service personally nor am I recommending that others use 7 Cups. I am making a case for why I believe 7 Cups has made reasonable claims and why e-therapy on 7 Cups isn't dangerous.
I wholeheartedly agree with more transparency and I believe that is a great thing.
Thanks for reading <3 and thanks for articulating your concerns so concisely. Im sure that others had these concerns too and getting them in the open is a great step towards transparency as well!
@AdVictoriam
Thank you for clarifying the safety issue...great response!
@RebeccaEmily
Sorry I was not around to reply sooner, but I just want to say thank you for this fabulous post! You put so much thought into this, and very clearly outlined your concerns and suggestions. I so appreciate what you've written here. I was going to post a lengthy reply, but @Amelia essentially said much of what I would have said, so I second her comments whole heartedly. And, I welcome your further suggestions and thoughts as we refine, and improve, this service.
Note - Items in blue are updated information.
- We ask them to enter their payment information. With a special notice, that they will not be charged till 5 messages have been exchanged between them and their chosen therapist. This will need to include at least 1 reply from the therapist. The goal here to ensure that your therapist is a good fit for you. We want to give you room to find someone who is a good match for you before billing kicks in.
- Once you have selected your therapist, they are your therapist for the month. You will not be able to change therapists once you have hit that 5 message count.
@Laura - I think you forgot to make things blue... :)
Also, important to clarify that these messages can be of any length, and it would be expected that the 5 messages are of a substantial enough length that you actually felt you could express everything you needed to (e.g., paragraphs, not sentences). Can you also confirm if this is 5 member sent messages or 5 total messages between a member and therapist? If it's just one reply from a therapist, is that enough to determine if there's an adequate report? On the other hand, if 4 of the 5 are from the therapist, is that enough for the member to feel they have expressed themselves before paying?
@Anomalia - Oops, I see now that you updated the ORIGINAL post in blue, not this one.
@Laura I wonder if there's any chance that you would consider upping the message count. Spending $150 to chat with a therapist that I may not get along with doesn't sound appealing. I think if you raised the message count to 20 it would make more sense. Some people write very short messages, one or two sentences at most so that 5-10 messages is just enough to explain the problem. I think it can take a lot more than 5-10 messages to tell if I'm going to get along with someone, and I suspect a lot of users of this service won't be that different from me. I would almost rather pay more for the service just to be sure I am getting the right therapist than to spend $150 and have to tolerate someone I'm not suited to for an entire month.
@LauraKay I also think that is not all members who will send paragraphs. and many will be short court message (1-2 sentence)
@LauraKay
Thanks for this feedback...we are working on trying to find the best system, and will likely make some changes once we see how it goes for members and therapists.
@Laura - Sorry for multiple posts, but if a member sent 3 messages, and then a therapist responded with 3 messages, that would be over the original 5. Would the member then be charged immediately, or at 5 messages will it cut out and then ask if they would like to pay to continue working with that therapist? It feels like there is potential for a lot of confusion and for people to be charged before they are ready, if the therapist's messages are included in the count.
@Anomalia 5 message including at least 1 reply from therapist, so when they send the 3 message, after the therapist replied two times, they get charged automatically before they get the answer from the therapist to this third message.
5 messages included 1 from therapist. it seems very few for verifying the compatibility???
@TortueDesBois
It is from my perspective too. However, this happens with in person therapy too. You pay for the services even if you later realize they didn't help much and you start searching for someone else. It sucks but it's the reality.
Also, let's not forget this is still at the very beginning - so it's some kind of experiment to see how the audience will work with these settings and how it will actually help clients. I don't think 7 Cups wants to fool anyone into getting their moneys without being sure the clients/members were helped by the therapist and the website.
@cristiana33
when I "shopped" for a therapist in 2009, I exchanged between 3 and 5 emails each (so entre 6 and 10 messages exchanged, as here we have to addictionnal all our messages), if i exclude those who has directly rejected my request because they don't work with people like myself, before to go to their office for a first meeting. and it's at this meeting that we decide if we could work together and what was the different modalities. of course I was very specific in what i was looking for, and in my request, and my first exchanged was a full paragraph, the last ones was more specific questions, and then only a sentence or two at the time. I knew exactly what I needed and what questions ask.
five messages is very little because there is not even three exchanges (which is 6 messages exchanged).
@cristiana33 Some therapists, particularly when they're just starting a private practice, offer a complimentary first session or consultation, to see if you're comfortable working with them and vice versa. This can vary from 15-20 minutes, up to a full session. Also, in the F2F world, if you don't like a therapist after one session, you don't go back an try someone else. On this service, if you don't like a therapist after a few message exchanges, you're out $150 and can't change therapists for a whole month. That's clearly unworkable!
@LauraKay--However, if you're referring to the 15-20mins as the "free session" to determine compatibility, that is similar to the 5 messages being exchanged in the beginning. And, say you went to a F2F appointment after that free session and you then decided you and the therapist were not a good match, you would not get a refund for that session (so, after the 5 messages exchanged, you wouldn't get the refund). Does that make sense, @LaraG? (cc: @Laura)
@Amelia Yes, of course it makes sense. My point though is that if you don't like the therapist's style, the way 7 Cups has set it up at present, you're stuck with them for a month and can't switch to another. That is problematic. In the real world, if you go see a therapist and don't like them, you don't go back to them and can go see someone else, without a one month waiting period. Not allowing clients to switch therapists for a month doesn't seem right to me. I wonder if it has been set up that way due to technical requirements or if that's a philosophical choice, along the lines of a client and therapist should try to make it work before moving on.
Also, I think it's really important to spell out very clearly and explicitly, that messages can be of any length and should be long to allow maximum information to be exchanged. Many of the people I listen to send short, one sentence messages. If that style transfers to the therapy environment, 5 messages will get used up very soon. I'm not trying to be a critical pest. I want this to work because I want 7 Cups to be sustainable, but as it is currently set up it does not seem welcoming at all. Maybe it's just me and it will turn out to be wildly successful. I hope that's the case.
Also, a 15-20 minute F2F consultation is not really comparable to 5 messages because a lot more can be said in 15-20 of F2F than online and research attests to this. Much more information can be exchanged talking than writing.
@LauraKay--As I described above, the majority of the messages I have been receiving are 5-8 paragraphs in length. This takes 15mins to thoroughly read. Then another 20mins to respond appropriately--therefore 1 message from each person (so, 2 of the 5) has covered 35mins of time. And, I don't think that 7 Cups is saying that you can't change therapists. If you wish to pay the $150 for a new therapist, that is allowable (just like, in real life, you'd have to pay a new fee).
I wonder about the possibility to set a smaller amount if you need only 1-2 more exchanges for know if it's a good fit.
by example you could get 3 more messages (passed from 5 to 8 messages by example), for xx$, and during this period, you still can change therapist, this amount could be non-refundable, or only reduced (or not at all) from the 150$ if you continue with them after 8 messages.
@TortueDesBois - I think we are still trying to figure out the best formula so I will cc @laraG here so she sees this comment as consider our options
@Laura I think this is a great development! I would also like to see it opened-up to qualified Coaches as well, please. (Disclosure: I'm a Coach.)
@Varee
Noted! That sounds interesting! I like that idea :)
@Varee. I like that thought Varee (declaration of interest: I'm a coach too)
Is this only for qualified therapists? I dont think 5 messages are enough. I usually speak a little with my patients before they get down to actually telling me the issue. Also, what if some of them cannot afford to pay? I know when i first came to 7 cups as a member i couldnt afford to pay and i was very young. Now as a listener, its much different.
Could it be better if according to their age, 7 cups charges. Please correct me if im misunderstanding.
I dunno, i just dont feel 100% okay about it. Could listeners be given the option of whether to charge the patient rather? 
@RuMi - Listeners do not and will not be charging for listening. This is a separate piece where licensed therapists are able to offer online therapy to adults who are able to and willing to pay for the service (as an alternative to traditional therapy, rather than an alternative to listening services here). Hope that helps!
@Anomalia thanks, i read the post again! Was getting abit worried